Water Transfers in the West Efficiency, Equity, and the Environment (1992) / Chapter Skim
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11 California's Imperial Valley: A 'Win-Win' Transfer?
11 California's Imperial Valley: A 'Win-Win' Transfer?
Pages 234-248
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From page 234... ...
Although MWD prefers not to characterize the agreement as a water transfer, it is otherwise almost universally viewed as the first major rural-to-urban transfer of irrigation water in California and will be a model for future transfers that try to accommodate urban demands and preservation of the state's productive agricultural economy. It is important to realize that the Imperial Irrigation District-Metropolitan Water District transfer was an "easy" case because no existing users were displaced and third party effects were minimal or indirect enough to be ignored.
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From page 235... ...
It was renamed the Imperial Valley at the turn of the century by the irrigation pioneer and promoter George Chaffey as part of an effort to attract settlers to the harsh desert. The valley is surrounded on the north, east, and west by mountains, and the entire valley floor is below sea level.
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From page 236... ...
Much of this water is allocated to irrigated agriculture, but the continued growth of the state's urban areas and growing recognition of the need to incorporate instream flow protection into all decisions on water resource allocation create strong pressures for large-scale rural-to-urban transfers and the reduction of agricultural use. Despite its established water rights, its long ability to shape federal reclamation efforts to its
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From page 237... ...
Recent trends in water-use philosophy and the administration of water law have severely undermined the positions of districts such as IID" (Imperial Irrigation District v. State Water Resources Control Board, 1991~.
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From page 238... ...
Valley support for the 1922 Colorado\River Compact, which divided the river equally between the upper and lower basins, and the cor~struction of Hoover Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation, were the price that the valley had to pay for federal construction of an upstream storage facility and the All American Canal. Eventually, all water rights and distribution systems were consolidated within the Imperial Irrigation District, formed in 1911 as the result of the bankruptcy of both the California Development Company and its Mexican subsidiary.
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From page 239... ...
or an amount necessary to irrigate 424,125 acres as present perfected rights. Under the 1931 Seven Party Agreement, IID, along with the Coachella Water District and a small amount of Palo Verde acreage, has the third priority behind Me Halo Verde Irrigation District and the California Division of the Yuma Project, but ahead of MOOD, which Has the fourth priority.
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From page 240... ...
In 1984, after a lengthy series of hearings in which a variety of interests (e.g., the California Department of Water Resources and the Environmental Defense Fund) presented substantial evidence on IID's water management practices and the potential for a conservationinduced water sale, the State Water Resources Control Board concluded that IID's use of water was unreasonable under California law and constituted waste (Staving and Willey, 1983~.
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From page 241... ...
Direct negotiations between IID and MWD resumed, however, in 1987 after an appellate court held that the state had the authority to order the district to institute a water conservation program (Imperial Irrigation District v. State Water Resources Control Board, 1986~.
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From page 242... ...
. in good operating; condition during the terms of this agreement" (IID and LEWD, 198~3 In addition, MWD must bear $23 million in indirect costs such as lost hydroelectric revenues, "mitigation of adverse impacts on agriculture from increased salinity in the water," and environmental mitigation and litigation costs from any impact on water levels or water quality in the Salton Sea and the New and Alamo rivers (IID and MOOD, 1989~.
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From page 243... ...
THIRD PARTY IMPACTS The three major third party claimants are two other irrigation districts, Palo Verde and Coachella Valley, and the public environmental values associated with the Salton Sea. Future lining of the All American Canal would affect Mexican irrigators who depend on seepage from the All American Canal but were not acknowledged as having a legal entitlement to such water in the treaty between the United States and Mexico allocating the water of the Colorado between the two nations.
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From page 244... ...
One environmental impact is that lower lake levels, which benefit littoral' lands, also result in increased salinity levels in the lake. The Salton Sea also is threatened by the New River, which is basically a conduit for untreated sewage, pesticide residues, and heavymetal contamination from northern Mexico.
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From page 245... ...
possible conjunctive use programs with other Central Valley agencies to increase available supplies to SWP contractors. Part of the yield of this innovative and complex conjunctive use program in Kern County will require a transfer of State Water Project entitlement water from the Kern County Water Agency to the other SWP contractors in exchange for use of the water previously stored underground in Kern County by the Department of Water Resources.
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From page 246... ...
The Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District are also currently in negotiation regarding another agreement that would operate in much the same way as the initial 1989 Water Conservation Agreement. The MWD would pay for the implementation of conservation measures.
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From page 247... ...
the paucity of well-defined external costs from the specific transfer. The Imperial Valley is beset with several serious environmental problems such as border pollution and the fate of the Salton Sea.
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From page 248... ...
1983. Trading Conservation Investments for Water: A Proposal for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to Obtain Additional Colorado River Water by Financing Water Conservation Investments for the Imperial Irrigation District.
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